Finnish pianist and harpist's Iro Haarla's new release “Ante Lucem” (Before Dawn) is a richly evocative piece of music written for jazz quintet and symphony orchestra. The composition draws upon the listener to imagine dawn to dusk, ice blue skies, gentle sometimes furious winds, the beauty and the frigidity of the winter season as well as the struggles and triumphs we face as human beings. Haarla dove headfirst into the music of drummer Edward Vesala following her studies at the Sibelius Academy in Finland in piano/composition, and he is a key influence on her work. The composition she's crafted here is full of rich melody, fascinating textures, striking quintet interplay woven neatly into an orchestral framework provided by the Norrlands Operans Symforniorkester.

The quintet is top notch featuring trumpeter Hayden Powell, Trygve Seim on tenor and soprano saxophones, the leader on piano and harp, Ulf Krokfors; double bass and drummer Mika Kallio organically injecting improvisation between stunning orchestral moments. Trygve Seim has appeared on twenty ECM discs, most recently bringing his full bodied horn to vocalist Sinikka Lagelund's imaginative “The Magical Forest”, bassist Mats Eilertsen's debut “Rubicon”, and his own,new, terrific “Rumi Songs” (the subject of a forthcoming review). Seim contributes some of the most powerful moments on “Songbird Chapel” dedicated to Haarla's mother, slowly crafting a solo of tremendous pacing, his gorgeous, huge tenor gradually building to a peak with staggering drums. A wall of increasing dissonance from the orchestra, musically illustrates the feelings of loss and grief though orchestra breaks through grief with a brighter declarative statement. The sound of the chilly season is more than amply explored on “Persevering With Winter” sweeping, whirring percussion imitating fierce wind, wood blocks emulating the crisp snap of a fire place. Warmth and comfort is introduced by Haarla's welcoming piano line, before the sense of struggle is reprised through Seim's growling, swooping tenor saxophone sparring with Powell's trumpet, stabbing trombones, pounding piano tone clusters underneath them. The vocal, gutteral sonorities of Seim and Powell recall the spirit of pre bop era jazz in an osmotic fashion. Once the conflict dissolves, tenor and trumpet triumphantly state a melody exuding hope. Powell is well showcased on the third movement “...and the Darkness Have Not Over”, Kallio's drums, echoing and responding to his lines in a spiraling freefall. Seim's strongest solo of the set comes at the end of the movement, with passionate soprano saxophone over soaring harmony and the drummer's dancing straight eighth cymbal work. Though Haarla indicates in the liners the four movements are loosely linked, there is thematic continuity throughout that nicely ties “Ante Lucem” the fourth and final movement to the shimmering sunlight grace of the opening of “Songbird Chapel”.

Iro Haarla's “Ante Lucem” is remarkable for the manner in which it effortlessly uses the orchestra and quintet, with no clear lines between ensemble and improvised passages. Typically pieces for large ensemble and jazz groups have composed sections followed by solos, in the more traditional manner, and Haarla succeeds with an endlessly captivating hour plus suite that wonderfully conveys both nature and human experience.​Reviewed by C J Shearn